Prejudicial attitudes can be modified

After living for seven decades in different states and meeting many people in various localities, I am convinced that we all harbor prejudice against people who are different from us.

In 1961 while living in Arkansas, I became friends with a black teenager as we both "snuck around" to smoke cigarettes. One day, I saw him and his brother, so I pedaled my bike to them. My black friend then said he needed to "beat me up." When I asked him why, he replied that "negroes cannot be friends with whites." He was taught that from some of his race.

That ended our friendship. He later became leader of the NAACP in that area. But, I never harbored ill feelings toward him because I knew that his race did often receive bad treatment from my race. But I often have wondered how things might have been for us had we not accepted the prejudices of the day but had remained friends throughout the trials of life.

I am not convinced that prejudice can be completely removed from society, but we can all learn to control or modify our prejudices. This does not mean that we must morally accept behavior or lifestyles which we do not endorse, but it does mean that we can help and protect those who are different from us, so that they might learn to accept those who are different from them.

Steve L. Owens

Brandon

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Prejudicial attitudes can be modified

After living for seven decades in different states and meeting many people in various localities, I am convinced that we all harbor prejudice against people who are different from us.